symposium
Americannoun
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a meeting or conference for the discussion of some subject, especially a meeting at which several speakers talk on or discuss a topic before an audience.
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a collection of opinions expressed or articles contributed by several persons on a given subject or topic.
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an account of a discussion meeting or of the conversation at it.
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(in ancient Greece and Rome) a convivial meeting, usually following a dinner, for drinking and intellectual conversation.
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(initial capital letter, italics) a philosophical dialogue (4th century b.c.) by Plato, dealing with ideal love and the vision of absolute beauty.
noun
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a conference or meeting for the discussion of some subject, esp an academic topic or social problem
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a collection of scholarly contributions, usually published together, on a given subject
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(in classical Greece) a drinking party with intellectual conversation, music, etc
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of symposium
1580–90; < Latin < Greek sympósion drinking party, equivalent to sym- sym- + po- (variant stem of pī́nein to drink) + -sion noun suffix
Explanation
A symposium is a public meeting about a topic in which people give presentations. If your knitting club holds a symposium, various knitters will give presentations about anything having to do with knitting. A symposium can be a one-time conference or a regular meeting, but it will probably include some amount of discussion or public speeches on a particular subject. Many people who attend symposiums will be part of the audience for many of the presentations, but during the course of the event, give their own presentation or be part of a panel discussion.
Vocabulary lists containing symposium
Ancient Greece - Introductory
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National Spelling Bee '14: Prelims Round 3
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Ancient Greece - Middle School and High School
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Fed officials making comments include governor Stephen Miran speaking at a financial system symposium at 6:20 p.m.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 13, 2026
I disagreed with the premise of the symposium and declined.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 29, 2026
Yin is also organizing a symposium on the Ithaca campus scheduled for March 3-5, 2026.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 24, 2025
I was nonplussed at a 1992 symposium in Vienna when a hall filled with international art world denizens went absolutely wild, cheering and stomping when Kelley was introduced on a panel.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 1, 2025
Dontas was followed in the symposium by Angelos Delivorrias, director of the Benaki Museum in Athens.
From "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell
The settlement includes $5,000 reserved in the provost’s office to pay for meeting expenses, events and symposia sponsored by the Carolina Black Caucus per year through June 2025, according to Hannah-Jones.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 19, 2022
With this April 15 marking the 75th anniversary of Jackie Robinson's breaking baseball's color line, Major League Baseball will celebrate the occasion with great fanfare – with tributes, movies, TV specials, museum exhibits and symposia.
From Salon ● May 14, 2022
Finally, the Greeks took part in a range of cultural practices, from listening to traveling storytellers who recited the Iliad and Odyssey from memory to holding drawn-out drinking parties called symposia.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2020
You will be constantly invited to speak at conferences or attend symposia in places like Aspen and Davos.
From Slate ● Oct. 23, 2018
“We talked about physics,” Oppenheimer recalled, recognizing that Ernest’s intellectual interests were narrower than his own and that he might not be especially receptive to wide-ranging symposia on Eastern philosophy and Western art.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
Premier Li Qiang in March declared China open for business again, and since then provinces and cities from Sichuan to Chaozhou have sent delegations across the globe to pitch and invited investors to rare symposiums.
From Reuters ● Jul. 24, 2023
This weekend’s marches, symposiums, prayer gatherings, art installations and ceremonies are meant to pressure policy makers in the U.S. and Canada to ensure equity when investigating such cases.
From Washington Times ● May 5, 2023
She wrote papers; she spoke at conferences; she taught at symposiums; she conducted workshops.
From New York Times ● Mar. 26, 2023
The “museological intervention,” as she refers to it, included exhibitions, performances, screenings and symposiums that collectively questioned historical and contemporary representations of Africa.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 14, 2022
We arrange symposiums and processions around them and shout at them and march up and down before them.
From The Lost Art of Reading by Lee, Gerald Stanley
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
